Birmingham News (Alabama), October 15, 2004 Friday.
Shelby County’s first proposed methadone clinic won’t be allowed to open after a judge ruled that nearby residents were misled about the owners’ intentions.
Shelby County Circuit Judge Dan Reeves granted a permanent injunction Thursday against the Shelby County Treatment Center on U.S. 31 in Saginaw. Reeves’ order states that nearby residents weren’t given a fair chance to express their concerns about the center.
The ruling came after almost a year of controversy over the clinic. Methadone is a prescribed drug taken by mouth to reduce the desire for drugs such as painkillers and heroin.
Opponents of the clinic argued that owners Susan StaatsSidwell and Dr. Glenn Archibald denied Saginaw residents the right to participate in a hearing through which the owners obtained permission to operate.
When the State Health Planning and Development Agency granted the license in January, the owners said they planned to open the clinic in Calera. The fight begins
The court fight began in May, when Saginaw residents learned that owners planned instead to open the clinic in their unincorporated community between Calera and Alabaster.
“At that time we were told by everybody higher up that there was nothing we could do about it, but we just stuck with the battle,” said Alan Edmonson, whose farm and boyhood home are just past the railroad tracks behind the clinic. “I’m proud of this.”
Edmonson organized Saginaw residents in the protest and court fight against the center.
Although the clinic originally was planned for Calera, clinic attorney David Belser argued that the state certificate was issued for the entire county and didn’t require further notification. The state board later approved a modified application to list Saginaw as the clinic’s location, he said.
“We provided uncontroverted expert testimony that it is very common to file a Certificate of Need application without having located an exact address for the facility,” Belser said. “Shelby County Treatment Center complied with every rule and application and law to locate its facility in Saginaw.” Methadone, Page 2A 1A
Belser said his clients will appeal the ruling to the Court of Civil Appeals in Montgomery. “It’s an injustice that we followed the rules and procedures set out by the law and we’re being penalized,” he said.
Shelby County District Attorney Robby Owens said the clinic owners’ assertion that a state license covered an entire county was a rule designed for hospitals. The clinic skirted public comment through a technical flaw in the state regulations, he said.
“The affected people, the people of Saginaw, really didn’t get notice. That’s been our objection from the beginning,” Owens said. “What we tried to do is give people their right to be heard.”
Owens and lawyer Mickey Johnson represented the county and Saginaw residents in the case.
Representatives from both sides attended four court hearings before Reeves issued a final ruling.
Staats-Sidwell said the decision was more about public opinion and a misrepresentation about methadone than it was about her clinic’s legal obligations.
“This has a lot to do with politics, and I think politics superseded the law, ” Staats-Sidwell said. She noted that both Owens and Reeves are running for reelection Nov. 2.
“I’m not a crook. I did everything the state of Alabama told me to do,” she said.
In his ruling, Reeves wrote that it didn’t matter whether the owners were deliberately misleading. The clinic’s true location was not made public until it was too late for meaningful protest, he wrote.